On the third occasion he was made to perform a sexual act on the defendant, he said.

'Confused and devastated'

The court heard that in 2003 the defendant was jailed for four years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting five boys in the 1970s and 1980s when they were members of the Stowmarket Schools Concert Band, which he had founded in 1961.

Giving evidence in the current trial, the former teacher maintained he was wrongly convicted but said he had not appealed because his solicitors advised he would have been released from prison before the appeal was completed.

He said he had been "confused and devastated" by his arrest and conviction.

His defence barrister, Tanya Robinson, asked him if there was any substance to the latest charges.

Mr Cable said: "No, absolutely not. I don't remember him at all.

"I have no recollection of ever giving a lesson to him at all."

The jury retired to consider its verdicts on Thursday afternoon and will resume its deliberations on Friday.